New GOP seems similar to the old one

Steve Metz, Henderson

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010 | 2:06 a.m.

I must admit I got a great laugh listening to the rhetoric coming out of the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. There were presidential hopefuls from the Republican Party trying as hard as they could to make it seem like they are the new Republican Party.

Even mild-mannered Tim Pawlenty encouraged Republicans to take hostile nine irons to the federal government. How about Mitt Romney, in his ever-changing moderate beliefs, now trying to be like an angry tea bagger? Didn’t he help put in universal health care in Massachusetts?

What happened to Bobby Jindal, last year’s flavor-of-the-month rising star in the party? He was nowhere to be found. Sarah “You betcha” Palin was suspiciously missing. Aren’t they supposed to be the new hopefuls?

The most comical, yet very sad, portion of this event was the hero’s reception Dick Cheney received. They even encouraged him to run for office again, with “Run, Dick, Run” chants. I guess the new Republican Party is about going back to the Cheney years — wars without cause, lying to the public, ignoring our analysts’ warnings about imminent threats by al-Qaida on our shores, torturing, breaking international treaties, and using reconciliation in order to pass massive unfunded tax cuts for the rich.

Is that the new Republican Party? Isn’t that the old Republican Party just attempting to rebrand itself by yelling louder? Aren’t John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor still in the same congressional leadership jobs they had when they were the old Republican Party? My friends, does this famous quote have relevance: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”?